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Mary Tyler Moore's 'house' sells for $1.5M after 5 years on market

The house at 2104 Kenwood Parkway, Minneapolis, that was used as the exterior for Mary Richards’ apartment on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” is still for sale. (Photo courtesy of Landmark Photography)

MINNEAPOLIS — Someone throw a hat up in the air: Mary's house has finally sold.

The home, located at 2104 Kenwood Parkway in Minneapolis, is famous for being featured in the opening sequence of "The Mary Tyler Moore" show in the 1970s.

More recently, the house went up for sale on June 14, 2012, for $2.895 million. After 1,923 days — more than five years — on the market, it finally sold Sept. 19 for $1.450 million.

Kate Wall, a Realtor with the Berg Larsen Group of Coldwell Banker Burnet, represented the buyer in the sale.

"A private family bought it and is going to live there," Wall says. "They are asking for their anonymity and privacy."

The house does not have the most private of profiles, however. Entertainment Weekly once described it as home to "TV's most famous bachelorette pad."

In the sitcom narrative, Mary Richards, an associate producer for WJM's "Six O'Clock News," rented out a studio apartment on the third floor of the Victorian.

It was a trendy shelter back in the day with its shag carpet, fern houseplants and wicker furniture — and especially the big "M" hanging on the wall.

Mary's apartment, of course, never existed — except on a set in California. The exterior of the Kenwood Parkway home was only featured in the opening sequence of the show ... the windows of the real home's third floor sort of matched Mary's pretend apartment windows.

As the show became a hit, the Minneapolis house, with all its Victorian charm, became as much a part of Mary's story as the hat she tossed up in the air while spinning around Nicollet Mall.

The real house — at least while it was listed — did not feature shag, ferns, wicker or hats. It does, however, have seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms and 9,500 square feet of space.

In the listing, though, there is a nod to Mary: In a photo of the third floor — where Mary's apartment would have been if fiction were reality — there is a television over the fireplace. On the television, frozen in time, is a scene of Mary in her apartment.

Moore, who toured the house once in the 1990s, passed away in January. She was 80. After her death, fans left flowers in front of "her" house on Kenwood Parkway.